8 Plus here. Do not really feel the need of changing the device by lack of power or the apps I use, but the camera is always tempting.
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I upgrade when my battery goes bust. I see that my upgrade cycles are becoming shorter. Currently on 12.
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Two year cycle seems such a money sucker especially if one buys unlocked phones.
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Going to upgrade my 11 for a 14 (larger size) and my 11 will go to my partner who is not really bothered what she has…
What I will not do is upgrade my iPad for the foreseeable future as honestly for what I use it for its fine, I spend much more time on the phone so would seem to make good sense to spend the money there.
My contract is a 3 year contract with an option to upgrade after 2 years.
I’m currently torn on whether to upgrade this year or not. My iPhone 12 Pro is still great, but after hearing about how good the camera on the 13 Pro was, the 14 Pro is tempting me.
Waiting to see the prices though.
Looking at the price announced for Germany yesterday, and the increasing number of missing features for our area at the same time, my, and my wife’s, Xs (that we purchased with a “golden Ticket” at the Day of its release) got yesterday the permissions, to stay another year in our pockets!
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I’m trying to remember. I think my first was a 3G, then a 5S, 7, 8S+, XS Max, and now 13 Pro Max.
I am a fairly big guy with big hands, and I’m a huge fan of battery life and screen real estate. I LOVE the giant frisbee phones.
Looking back, I typically upgrade every 2 years when my contract expires. I’m always amazed how you amp yourself up for the new phone and then when you get it, the novelty wears off in about 5 minutes because it does EXACTLY the same things your other phone does – with the exception of maybe one or two “hey that’s cool” features you ultimately use three times.
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I am on a two year iPhone cycle - discounted cost through work plan but paid for out of my pocket. If not of the the work discount I would probably be on a three year cycle for sure.
As for my Apple watch, my Series 3 is definitely being replaced with a Series 8 this fall.
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On average, I’m 4-ish years:
- Original (2007)
- 4 (2010)*
- SE (2016)
- 12 Mini (2020)
I’d probably upgrade more often if they consistently released small options.
* I briefly had a work phone that was 6S somewhere in this time period but handed it in when I left the job and returned to the 4.
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I’m on a when it dies upgrade cycle.
I have an 11 Pro. If I am able to replace the battery when needed, I’ll do that.
Otherwise, there’s nothing tempting me, feature wise.
I do like the Deep Purple color, but that can be solved with a new case.
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Still on a 11 Pro Max. Still makes calls. Still shiny and still free from payments 
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Haha me too. I need to check the camera specs in more detail - 14 Pro looks like overkill but there are definitely real life situations where my wife’s 13 Pro outperforms the 11 Pro Max.
Phones stay in my house for 4 years but my wife & I get new ones every 2 years, with the previous ones being handed off to our kids.
But maybe they don’t need 13s next fall. I guess it’ll depend upon how much of a jump it is from 13 to 15.
I have a 12 Pro Max that I received through a carrier deal. I probably won’t get locked into something like this again, but I see no reason to break my contract this year.
Most of my tech is old. I was a tech blogger in the 2000s and early 2010s, and I liked to keep up with the latest and greatest. Now, I find myself less tempted, so I keep using things until there’s some compelling reason to upgrade.
My current phone is an iPhone XS–nearly four years old. It’s still working great. The new phones don’t tempt me. Eventually, it’ll be time to upgrade the XS, and I’m sure I will be delighted by the new features when the new device is in my pocket. Hopefully I’ll be able to get at least another year out of the XS.
My Mac is a 2018 MacBook Pro. I started a new job in June 2020 and stopped using that MBP much at all. I got laid off Aug. 1 of this year and thought I would need a new MacBook at that point. “I’ll just try the old MBP first and see if that works,” I said to myself.
And to my pleasant surprise, the 2018 MBP works very well, even though it’s four years old, and only has 8 GB of memory–I was in a rush when I got it, and had to buy the floor model.
So I have no plans to upgrade my MacBook Pro.
I bought a 2020 iPad Pro 12.9" and struggled with the huge size. Finally, I traded it in last year(?) on a smaller iPad Air, and I like that just fine. Sometimes I am tempted by an iPad mini, but the temptation passes.
I also have a 2018 iPad that started to show signs of underperforming in 2020. I meant to trade it in or give it away; now I use it as a desk console under my display and behind my Bluetooth keyboard.
And I have a third iPad, an iPad mini that I got in, I think, 2013? I can’t upgrade that one past iOS 12, and the battery only lasts about 45 minutes. It makes a nice ebook reader when I’m in the mood for that.
I was using an Apple Watch Series 1 until a few months ago–that’s five years!–when it finally died. I replaced it with the latest model, a Series 7. I’ll probably hang on to that until it can no longer take OS upgrades, so I guess that’ll be three or four years.
Oh, I forgot about the Cinema Display. I bought it in 2010. No plans to replace it; it works fine.
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I had the iPhone 4 32GB (2012?) and the SE first gen (2015) 64GB, which I have only bought because I have panicked seeing that all the new iPhones were getting bigger and bigger, so I figured I needed a “small” one before it was gone.
Sometime during lockdowns (1 or 2 years ago, can’t tell years apart), in another fit of panic, I have purchased a refurbished 128GB SE first gen (2016). Again, I saw the phones getting huge, jack and home button disappearing… I needed backup! I’m very happy with it and I hope it lasts me another 3 years or so. After which I might just move back to a dumb phone if Apple doesn’t make anything small again!
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I need a smart phone but if iPhones get any larger I start buying older models.
I used to only upgrade when the chassis changes at the beginning of the “tic-toc” (and in recent years “tic-toc-tock“) cycle.
So I’ve had: Original, 3G, 4, 6, X, 12 (mini)…
…then last year I broke my own rules and upgraded on a “toc” cycle to the 13 Mini because the battery of the 12 Mini was too bad. This year I may break my rule again, this time because the camera upgrades of the 14 Pro seem significant and the always-on display seems a welcome change. Or not. Reading your posts reminded me of how silly it is to change yearly. Especially with the new iPad Pro 12.9, my main computer, around the corner.
My iPhone is my only camera, so in principle I don’t mind spending on it, in an era when it’s still getting noticeably better ever po few years. My issue is that I haven’t really liked the design of any iPhones since the iPhone 4. I don’t mind too much the design of the current non-Pro cycle of 12, 13, 14 but the shiny steel bands around the Pro line have been (to my eyes) a repellent. Plus the camera just bulges out too much at this point, and I feel like the Apple bulge isn’t as graceful as some of its competitors. It’s hard to spend all this money on an object that I regard as meh from a design standpoint. But Apple’s marketing is potent indeed!
Anyone else notice the Apple Watch apparently only saves the lives of US citizens? Most were definitely in the US, a few I’m not sure but have a decent sense they were.
I get that a US company is gonna prioritise the US first, and to some extent go by size of market after that, but for a company that is a global success, they sure do forget to keep that globe in a loop a lot. (Apple News, anyone? Or the evergreen and now obsolete TV shows on iTunes.)
I’m not on any kind of “upgrade cycle”. I upgrade when I want a new phone. That seems to be getting less often now because the curve is flattening quite a bit. I love me some new shiny as much as the next person, but given I remain unimpressed by iPhone cameras, there’s really very little meaningful difference between my iPhone 11 Pro and an iPhone 14 Pro. Even my battery health still says 100%!
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Right. But I was pointing out the technology refresh cycle is a more delicate ballet than just “buy a new phone every 2 years”.
For example, if I buy the phone next year then I’m also buying the next watch at the same time. That’s a big lump in my spend. Particularly if it’s for the two of us.